JUPITER, Fla. (CBS12) — A Florida man was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail this week after allegedly threatening to kill various law enforcement agencies, including Jupiter and Boca Raton police departments, on Facebook.
An official from the Biloxi Police Department, in Mississippi, reached out to the Jupiter Police Department with concerns about a suspicious account posting death threats against police from Jupiter, Boca Raton, Manatee County, and FBI employees.
The Biloxi official provided three Facebook posts from an account using the name “Bret Vitullo,” which authorities say were written by 43-year-old Bret Schaller Hullinger.
“[P]ost every bit of information you have about me or kiss your loved ones goodbye and tell them I am going to torture you to death,” Hullinger allegedly posted on his public account under a pseudonym on February 21
Jupiter police reported that none of the agencies targeted in the threat had any intention to post anything about Hullinger.
The posts go a step further, attaching photos of Jupiter police cars, a knife, and what appears to be a selfie of Hullinger in front of the department headquarters. Officers later confirmed it to be him after he was captured on surveillance video taken that same day.
Former Boca Raton Police Chief Andrew Scott has been involved with law enforcement for decades. He compares it to a mean dog.
“If you take a look at the threats made on social media, that’s the growl, and eventually that growl turns into a bite, meaning the fulfillment of the threat. And that is extremely important with regard to officers recognizing that they cannot just blow this off,” Scott said.
While investigating, police were able to identify Hullinger in part from the profile picture on his “Bret Vitullo” account — which was of his real face, according to an arrest report. Hullinger also listed the names “Schaller Hullinger Dimwitsky O’Shine” on the same account.
The police report lists the Florida man as unemployed, living out of his car.
The report also includes a photo of a knife posted to Facebook with the caption, “This picture is the knife I will stab the officers who don’t post the truth right now in the face with as hard and deep and as many times as I can.” It’s unclear exactly what truth Hullinger was asking for.
“Being a law enforcement officer or former law enforcement officer, any type of threat, veiled or overt, would make me feel very uncomfortable,” Scott said.
Jupiter police felt they had enough to file an arrest warrant, and Hullinger was taken into custody Tuesday.
Hullinger is charged with four counts of intimidation for writing death threats and four more counts of extortion, all 2nd-degree felonies. He’s being held in the Palm Beach County Jail on a $120,000 bond.
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Source: cbs12
